Paris Werewolves

The Emperor Quartet, throwing it down in Kapuzinerkirche , Vienna If Vienna is best known for anything, it is music. I wont argue the merits of Mozart vs. wienerschnitzel . Suffice it to say, Vienna excels at both but one just has more world-historical street cred than the other. Going to hear and see live music performances in Vienna is just about as easy as finding delicious  wienerschnitzel . Between the Staatsoper (State Opera House), the Konzerthaus , or just about every church and any kind of indoor space you can think of, you can get inexpensive tickets to hear superb musicians playing the great hits of yesteryear from Wolfgang Amadeus, Johann Sebastian ... and the rest. And it sounds lovely, and familiar, a truly beautiful and memorable experience for those of us whose only know European classical music from Bugs Bunny cartoons.   Think I saw this dude one time on Letterman. Vaguely remember a baby backup band. Not only is it easy to indulge in Eine Kleine Hohekultur ...

Our spirit guide through Vienna's Zentralfriedhof cemetery. Wiener Zentralfriedhof is pretty new by the standards of European burial places. Established in 1863 to accommodate the future needs of Vienna's growing population, the cemetery immediately took flak from conservative religious quarters for interring Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox Christians, and Jews on the same grounds (in separate sections, of course). Because the new friedhof was planned with space to expand in mind, it was also located pretty far from town--about half an hour today by tram. This was still a bit à province for fashionable, sophisticated Viennese to contemplate depositing their mortal remains. After all, unlike in the US, in Europe, you don't buy a burial plot. You rent it and hope that your family continues to pay for its care and upkeep in perpetuity. The last thing you want is some distant, as-yet-unborn cousin to slack off for the sake of inconvenience. To sweeten the pot, friedhof p...

Kapuzinergruft , Vienna Vienna is the most beautiful, elegant, sophisticated place for contemplating what awaits beyond the veil of death and in the darkest corners of our nightmares. Amidst the baroque architecture, string quartets and bustling coffee houses serving schnitzels and tortes to tourists and locals alike, you will find more skulls, trolls, and demons per square kilometer than any other place I've ever been.   Anti-war and Anti-fascism monument, Vienna In some respects, this makes perfect sense. The Habsburg Empire, in its many iterations from roughly the 11th century until the end of WWI, encompassed huge swaths of Balkan, Carpathian, and Transylvanian eastern Europe. They likely absorbed the folklore of these lands, which was rife with fantastic beasts and horrific, undead revenants, as subjects and treasure were funneled back towards the seat of imperial rule in Austria. Still, that's not much of an explanation. Monstrous creatures are part of folklore around the...